Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T06:24:46.080Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Urban Policy and Performance in Kenya and Tanzania

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Richard Stren
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Over the past ten years, African governments have wrestled with the problems of designing and implementing comprehensive rural development policies. In an overwhelmingly rural continent with, for most areas, only a recent history of urbanisation, such an emphasis is understandable. But if African cities are for the most part young, and small by world standards, they are also growing faster than cities in any other major world region. This rapid growth, superimposed on a meagre resource base, will put increasing pressure on planners to devise solutions for the adequate and equitable distribution of urban services. The solutions that emerge, however, will be heavily conditioned by two sets of factors: the immediate demands of urban growth, and the wider political/administrative and social context within which policy-making takes place.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , June 1975 , pp. 267 - 294
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Page 267 note 1 Kenya, , Statistical Abstract, 1968 (Nairobi, 1968).Google Scholar

Page 268 note 1 Kenya Population Census, 1962, Vol. III, African Population (Nairobi, 1964), pp. 23 and 82.

Page 268 note 2 International Labour Office, Employment, Incomes and Equality: a strategy for increasing productive employment in Kenya (Geneva, 1972), p. 49Google Scholar for the Mombasa figure. The Nairobi estimate has been altered to make allowance for boundary changes.

Page 268 note 3 Bloomberg, Lawrence and Abrams, Charles, Report of the United Nations Mission to Kenya on Housing (Nairobi, 1965).Google Scholar Census figures prepared for the Mission showed that, for African urban households in 1962, 70 per cent occupied a single living room, and 49 per cent had three or more persons to the room.

Page 268 note 4 Kenya National Assembly, Official Report (Nairobi), Vol. XII, 8 06 1967, col. 773.Google Scholar

Page 269 note 1 Source: Ministry of Housing, 1973.

Page 269 note 2 Kenya, , Development Plan, 1970–1974 (Nairobi, 1969), pp. 179, 186, 507–8, and 519.Google Scholar

Page 269 note 3 Ibid. p. 508.

Page 270 note 1 Kenya, , Report of the Public Accounts Committee on County Councils for the Period, 1969 to 1971, and Municipal Councils for the Period, 1969 to 1971 (Nairobi, 1972), p. 5.Google Scholar

Page 270 note 2 See, for example, World Bank, Urbanization: sector working paper (Washington, 1972), pp. 64–5.Google Scholar

Page 270 note 3 National Housing Corporation, Annual Report, 1972 (Nairobi, 1973), p. 20.Google Scholar

Page 270 note 4 See, for example, Housing Research and Development Unit, University of Nairobi, Site and Service Schemes: analysis and report (Nairobi, 1971), p. 85.Google Scholar

Page 271 note 1 The solution arrived at is detailed in Nairobi City Council, Urbanisation Task Force, Dandora Community Development Project, Site and Service Scheme (Nairobi, 1973).Google Scholar

Page 271 note 2 This is my interpretation of an interview with the Administrative Officer, Rent Restriction Tribunal, Nairobi, 22 November 1973. For criticisms of the tribunals, see ‘Rent Tribunal Needs Power’, in East African Standard (Nairobi), 10 October 1973; and Ghai, Y. P. and McAuslan, J. P. W. B., Public Law and Political Change in Kenya (New York, 1970), pp. 289–90.Google Scholar

Page 271 note 3 Ministry of Housing, Annual Report, 1967–71 (Nairobi, 1972), p. 20.Google Scholar

Page 271 note 4 Etherton, David, Mathare Valley: a case study of uncontrolled housing in Nairobi (Housing Research and Development Unit, University of Nairobi, 1975), p. 4.Google Scholar The cited figure of 143,313 persons living in various categories of illegal housing is probably based on work done in 1969. The official census of that year showed Nairobi with a total population of 509,286, of which 421,079 were Africans. Since virtually all ‘squatters’ are Africans, this represents 28 per cent of the total population, or 34 per cent of the African population.

Page 271 note 5 Morrison, Hunter, Mathare Valley Report: a case study in low income housing (Nairobi City Council, Urban Study Group, 1972), p. 8.Google Scholar Crucial parts of this study are summarised by Chana, T. and Morrison, H., ‘Housing Systems in the Low Income Sector of Nairobi, Kenya’, in Ekistics (Athens), XXXIV, 214, 09 1973, pp. 214–22.Google Scholar

Page 272 note 1 Kenya, , Town Planning Department, Housing in Mombosa (Nairobi, 1969), p. 4Google Scholar and appendix A, section 13.

Page 272 note 2 Kibera is an old settlement in the southern part of Nairobi, where Sudanese ex-soldiers were given grants of land by the army after World War I. It is not visible from the major roads in the city.

Page 273 note 1 East African Standard, 21 November 1970.

Page 273 note 2 Nairobi City Council Minutes, 1970–1971 (Nairobi, 1971), pp. 2497–8.

Page 274 note 1 Sources: Kenya, Statistical Abstract, 1972 (Nairobi, 1972), p. 223; and Kenya Population Census, 1969 (Nairobi, 1971), Vol. 11, p. 2

Page 274 note 2 Kenya, Statistical Abstract, 1972, p. 124.

Page 274 note 3 Omolo, Leo Odero, ‘Kisumu: a dying town’, in The Sunday Post (Nairobi), 23 09 1973Google Scholar.

Page 275 note 1 Source: Statistical Abstract, 1970 (Dar es Salaam, 1972), p. 137.

Page 275 note 2 Sutton, J. E. G., Dar es Salaam: City, Port and Region: special issue of Tanganyika Notes and Records (Dar es Salaam), 71, 1970, p. 18Google Scholar.

Page 275 note 3 Tanzania, 1967 Population Census (Dar es Salaam, 1970), Vol. 11, p. 164.

Page 275 note 4 See Tanzania, Recorded Population Changes, 1948-67 (Dar es Salaam, 1968), pp.13-14.

Page 275 note 5 A useful review of urban development policy in mainland Tanzania is contained in Ministry of Lands, Housing, and Urban Development, Achievement in Ten Tears of Independence (Dar es Salaam, 1971).

Page 275 note 6 Laws of Tanzania, National Housing Corporation Act (Cap.481)

Page 276 note 1 The phrase is from Bienefeld, Manfred A. and Binhammer, H. H., ‘Tanzania Housing Finance and Housing Policy’, in Hutton, John (ed.), Urban Challenge in East Africa (Nairobi, 1972), p. 186Google Scholar.

Page 276 note 2 For an evaluation of this scheme, see Gerhard Grohs, ‘Slum Clearance in Dar es Salaam’, ibid. pp. 157–76.

Page 276 note 3 This legislation is discussed in detail in Achievement in Ten Tears of Independence, pp. 14-17; and by James, R. W., Land Tenure and Policy in Tanzania (Nairobi, 1971), pp. 93–166Google Scholar.

Page 277 note 1 These towns were Tanga, Arusha/Moshi, Mwanza, Mtwara, Mbeya, Morogoro, Dodoma, and Tabora. See Tanzania Second Five-Tear Plan for Economic and Social Development, 1st July 1969-3Oth June 1974 (Dar es Salaam, 1969), Vol. 1, p. 181.

Page 277 note 2 Ibid. p.191.

Page 277 note 3 The Acquisition of Buildings Act, 1971 applied to all properties valued at Shs. 100,000/- or renting for Shs. 833/- per month or more. lasts of the buildings and their owners were published in the local newspapers. Because of mistakes, or successful appeals to a tribunal, about 300 of the original total had been returned to their owners by 1973.

Page 278 note 1 Achievement in Ten Years of Independence, p. 54.

Page 278 note 2 Daily News (Dar es Salaam), 14 February 1973.

Page 278 note 3 For details of how the Rent Tribunal worked during the 1960s, see Ripotiya Mwaka 1967 ya Baraza la Kukariria Kodi za Nyumba (Dar es Salaam, 1969).

Page 279 note 1 Details of the policy decisions outlined in this paragraph can be found in Tanzania, Hali ya Uchumi wa Taifa Katika Mwaka, 1972–73 [Economic Survey, 1972–73] (Dar es Salaam, 1973), pp. 85–6.

Page 279 note 2 Daily Nation, 2 October 1973.

Page 279 note 3 For details of the re-organisation of the central Government in accordance with this scheme, see Julius Nyerere, Decentralisation (Dar es Salaam, 1972).

Page 279 note 3 See, for example, Cliffe, Lionel and Cunningham, Griffiths, ‘Ideology, Organisation and the Settlement Experience in Tanzania’, in Cliffe, Lionel and Saul, John S. (eds.), Socialism in Tanzania, Vol. 11, Policies (Nairobi, 1973), p. 139Google Scholar.

Page 279 note 5 Here I would agree with the argument of Helleiner, G. K., ‘Socialism and Economic Development in Tanzania’, in Journal of Development Studies (London), viii, 2, 01 1972, pp. 183–204Google Scholar.

Page 280 note 1 Tanzania, Second Five-Tear Plan, p. 189.

Page 281 note 1 Ministry of Lands, Housing, and Urban Development, Sites and Services Project (Dar es Salaam, 1973), p. 9.

Page 281 note 2 ‘Squatters’ in Tanzania are those who unlawfully occupy urban land. Since lawful occupation requires a right of occupancy issued by the Lands Division, based on a plot survey, the definition further implies that the squatters have built either on unsurveyed land, or on surveyed land but not within surveyed plot boundaries.

Page 281 note 3 Delineation and counting was done with enlarged air photographs. Since squatter houses in Dar es Salaam are almost invariably of a certain type, and are sited in areas without regular road access, it is not difficult to locate and count them. Details of the 1969 exercise are contained in John Leaning, ‘Squatter Housing in Dar es Salaam’, Ministry of Lands, Housing, and Urban Development, 1972.

Page 282 note 1 For details of the 1972 count, see Richard Stren, ‘Urban Squatting in Tanzania’, Ministry of Lands, Housing, and Urban Development, 1973, pp. 7–8.

Page 282 note 2 National Capital Master Plan, Dar es Salaam (Toronto, 1968), p. 106.

Page 282 note 3 Tanzania, Majadiliano ya Bunge [Hansard], 22 April–27 April 1971 (Dar es Salaam, 1971), col. 23. The passage is translated from the original Swahili.

Page 283 note 1 Tanzania, The Economic Survey, 1970-71 (Dar es Salaam, 1971), p. 103.

Page 284 note 1 Tanzania, Survey of Employment and Earnings, 1970 (Dar es Salaam, 1972), p. 37.

Page 284 note 2 Kenya, Statistical Abstract, 1972, p. 216.

Page 284 note 3 For Ghana, see Report of the Commission Appointed to Enquire into the Manner of Operation of the State Housing Corporation (Accra, 1968); and for Western Nigeria, see Ogunpola, G. A., ‘The Functioning of a Statutory Corporation: the case of Western Nigeria Housing Corporation, 1958–1966’, in Quarterly Journal of Administration (Ibadan), iv, 1, 10 1969, pp. 31–44.Google Scholar The kind of corruption and mismanagement brought out in these West African case-studies does not, however, appear to apply to Kenya and Tanzania.

Page 285 note 1 An excellent analysis of their strengths and weaknesses is contained in Penner, R. G., Financing Local Government in Tanzania (Nairobi, 1970)Google Scholar.

Page 285 note 2 Tanzania, Statistical Abstract, 1970, p. 174; and Kenya, Statistical Abstract, 1972, p 211.

Page 286 note 1 Tanzania, Statistical Abstract, 1970, p. 152–3.

Page 286 note 2 Achievement in Ten Years of Independence, P.30.

Page 287 note 1 For an important analysis of the income gap between urban and rural areas, see the ‘Turner Report’, published as Report to the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania on Wages, Incomes and Prices Policy (Dar es Salaam, 1967). This was discussed at length in Parliament, where the debate can be located in Majadiliano ya Bunge [Hansard] 9th July to 26th July 1968 (Dar es Salaam, 1968), cols. 2581–666. A concise statement of the Government's policy on incomes and the rural-urban balance is published in the Second Five-Tear Plan, pp. 205–7.

Page 287 note 2 For example, paragraph 11 of the TANU Guidelines, 1971 stated: ‘The responsibility of the Party is to lead the masses, and their various institutions, in the effort to safeguard national independence and to advance the liberation of the African. The duty of a socialist party is to guide all activities of the masses. The Government, parastatals, national organisations, etc., are instruments for implementing the Party's policies. Our short history of independence reveals problems that may arise when a Party does not guide its instruments. The time has now come for the Party to take the reins and lead all the people's activities.’ The Guidelines are translated into English in The African Review (Dar es Salaam), 1, 4, April 1972, pp. 1–8.

Page 288 note 1 Nyerere, Julius, Freedom and Socialism (Dar es Salaam, 1968), pp. 242–3Google Scholar.

Page 288 note 2 Ibid. p. 249.

Page 289 note 1 Cliffe, Lionel, ‘Nationalism and the Reaction to Enforced Agricultural Change in Tanganyika during the Colonial Period’, in Cliffe, Lionel and Saul, John S. (eds.), Socialism in Tanzania, Vol.1, Politics (Nairobi, 1972), p. 22Google Scholar.

Page 289 note 2 East African Standard, 28 September 1972.

Page 289 note 3 Daily Nation, 1 December 1972.

Page 289 note 4 National Housing Corporation, Annual Report, 1972, p. 37.

Page 290 note 1 The influential ‘Ndegwa Report’ on the public service dealt at some length with the ethics of public servants engaging in business activities, concluding that, subject to certain general provisos (which do not in fact appear to be generally followed), ‘there ought in theory to be no objection to the ownership of property or involvement in business by members of the public services to a point where their wealth is augmented perhaps substantially by such activities’. Report of the Commission of Inquiry (Public Service Structure and Remuneration Commission) 1970–71 (Nairobi, 1971), p. 14.

Page 290 note 2 For a brilliant analysis of urban-rural ties that applies particularly to the Central Province, see Leys, Colin, ‘Politics in Kenya: the development peasant society’, in British Journal of Political Science (London), 1, 07 1971, pp. 307–37Google Scholar.

Page 291 note 1 Source: International Labour Office, Employment, Incomes and Equality (Geneva, 1972), p. 346.

Page 291 note 2 Source: author's computation of data supplied by Sabot, Richard and Bienefeld, Manfred A., National Urban Mobility and Employment Survey of Tanzania (Dar es Salaam, 1971)Google Scholar.

Page 292 note 1 An excellent recent collection of articles on class in Africa is Chodak, Szymon (ed.), Social Stratification in Africa: special issue of Canadian Journal of African Studies (Ottawa), vii, 3, 1973Google Scholar.

Page 292 note 2 The I.L.O. report Employment, Incomes and Equality relies heavily on this survey, but notes on pp. 75-6 that ‘there was serious bias in the sample… The major biases arose through omitting most of the urban shanty areas from the sample frame and through excluding European and Asian households from the sample, thereby also excluding many African household servants, many of whom earn less than 200 shs. a month.’ In a more recent synthesis of a number of social surveys, however, the Nairobi Urban Study Group has produced an income distribution table for 1972 that shows a much lower proportion of urban households in the under Shs. 300/- per month class, and a much higher proportion in the highest income category. Even if all of these samples are biased, which is difficult to demonstrate, they still represent an income distribution pattern which policy-makers must presume to exist.

Page 293 note 1 For an extensive treatment of upper-income biases in the housing programme of the City Council, see Frederick T. Temple, ‘Politics, Planning and Housing Policy in Nairobi’, Ph.D. dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, 1973.